‘Don’t try to stick that label on to me! Your brother is not the Party, and opposing him is not opposing the Party.’ There was anger in Huixian’s voice as she picked up a brush and began tapping it against the back of her chair. ‘Why take your anger out on me? Who am I to him? Who is he to me? I’ve got no mother and no father, so who is anybody to me? Nobody! But you can’t stop me from saying what’s fair. Chairman Mao has said the masses have the right to state their opinions, so who is Secretary Zhao to keep the masses from voicing theirs?’
‘That’s not opinion, that’s rumour!’ Knowing she was not going to win an argument with Huixian, Zhao Chunmei turned back to me. ‘No, it wasn’t a rumour,’ she shouted, ‘it was a venomous attack. All the time, that’s what he did, write lies all over the place, like: “Zhao Chuntang is an alien class element”, which had a widespread pernicious effect. Even grammar-school children were asking, “What’s an alien class element?”’
The shop went quiet, as people pondered the meaning of alien class element.
I saw that slogan everywhere too, but still didn’t know what it meant. Little Chen was the first to voice his confusion. ‘What does alien mean?’ he asked me. ‘How about explaining it to us.’
I refused his request. ‘Who am I to explain anything? Besides, I didn’t write it, so why should I be the one to explain?’
‘If you didn’t write it, who did?’ Zhao Chunmei bellowed. ‘You haven’t got the guts to own up to your own deeds! You’re like your father, hiding in dark corners to spread rumours, sling mud and act like a hooligan.’
I sat there affecting the ‘a real man doesn’t fight with a woman’ pose. Old Cui considered alien class elements on a par with morally bankrupt elements, while Teacher Qian from the Milltown high school announced authoritatively that alien class elements were the same as degenerates. You could have heard a pin drop. But Little Chen wasn’t quite finished. ‘What do you say, Kongpi? Does it mean the same as degenerate?’
‘Sort of,’ I replied ambiguously, ‘but not quite. Alien class element is a more serious label, I think.’
Before I could elaborate on my vague comment, Zhao Chunmei jumped out of her chair and rushed over, blind with anger. ‘What do you mean, morally bankrupt and degenerate? My brother is a good and decent man and an upright official. Your father is the morally bankrupt and degenerate one. Go back and tell him that cutting off half his dick means nothing, and even if he’d cut it all off and turned himself into a eunuch, that wouldn’t mean anything either. He’s a sex fiend, a liar, a bastard, and a criminal who will never hold his head up in society again! Listen, everyone, here’s the latest news. Ku Wenxuan palmed himself off as the descendant of a martyr for decades, but now we know that he is not Deng Shaoxiang’s son, he’s the son of the river pirate Old Qiu. The woman they call Rotten Rapeseed was his mother, not Deng Shaoxiang. Before Liberation she was a riverboat prostitute.’
Silence settled over the shop. Customers and barbers alike were tongue-tied. But only momentarily. Like oil popping in a pan, one person spun around in his swivel chair, while others tried but failed to stifle giggles as a frenzy of whispering began. Huixian was the first to come to my defence. ‘Have you gone mad, Zhao Chunmei?’ she demanded. ‘Your mouth is going to get you into trouble. Even if their whole family are your mortal enemies, you still don’t have the right to say whatever you want about their ancestors. You could bring the wrath of the heavens down on your head.’
‘Did I say anything about their ancestors?’ Zhao shot back. ‘I don’t have time to waste on that, even if could. I’m telling you, people, it’s confidential information, but my brother says that the next time Ku tries to file an appeal, my brother will go public with it.’
It took Old Cui and Little Chen, plus some of the customers, to keep me from charging at Zhao Chunmei. ‘Calm down,’ they said. ‘Don’t fly off the handle. Don’t demean yourself by reacting to a woman’s empty-headed talk. If it’s confidential information, it could be true, it could be false. We’re the only ones who heard it, and it won’t go any further. You’re OK with that, aren’t you?’
Working together, they managed to bundle me out of the shop, followed by Zhao Chunmei’s shrewish comments. ‘Where are you taking him?’ she said. ‘Bring him back in here. I want him here, so I can settle things with him once and for all. And if he lays a hand on me, I’ll see him punished by law.’
There was no calming me down. I fired off a stream of filthy, almost hysterical curses, which drew the attention of passers-by on the street. Holding my arm with all his might, Old Cui shouted to Huixian, ‘Come out here, I can’t hold him. He’ll listen to you.’
She ran out and glared at me. ‘Do you think that kind of filthy talk makes you a man? Why provoke her? You can’t win with a woman like that, especially with what your father owes her. So leave now before a crowd starts to gather and she goes into broadcast mode, blaring the news to anyone who’ll listen. Put yourself in your father’s position. Do you think he could stand it if this news reached him?’
Huixian’s advice calmed me down, and I decided to avoid further conflict. I walked across the street to the cotton-fluffing shop to wait for Zhao Chunmei to come outside. I hated her with a passion. The shop’s proprietor came out to ask what was going on, but the look in my eyes sent her scurrying back inside, afraid of what I might do.
I waited a long time, but no Zhao Chunmei. Huixian came out with a kettle. ‘Still here? What fiendish plan are you cooking up? Are you going to confront her alone out here? I tell you, calm down. A real man would not fight with a woman. So what does that make you?’
I shook my head. ‘You water your flowers and don’t worry about me.’ To be honest, I wasn’t sure why I was waiting for Zhao Chunmei. What was I going to say to her? I hadn’t decided. What did I plan to do to her? Nothing, given my timid nature. I watched Huixian water her plants; a new sunflower bloomed, its golden petals having burst open so it could stand tall, fresh and tender. It was velvety soft and immature, and I saw Huixian smile as she looked at it.
My gaze was fixed on a young woman and a single sunflower, so when Zhao Chunmei came out of the barbershop, I didn’t know what to do. She was several metres away when she turned and spat on the ground. For me that was like waking from a dream.
I made up my mind to follow her. Not to retaliate or scare her — the loathing I felt for her took a new direction. I resolved to make her tell me everything, so I could learn the true secret of Father’s legacy once and for all.
It didn’t take long for Zhao Chunmei to realize that I was following her, and she took that as a threat. At first she kept turning around and rolling her eyes at me, a sign of contempt, but as the distance between us narrowed, fear crept in, and she grabbed a mop that was drying in the sun outside a house and pointed it at me. ‘What’s made you so bold all of a sudden? Why are you following me in broad daylight? Come on,’ she said, ‘I don’t care what you’re planning, just come on.’
I gestured for her to calm down. ‘What’s got you so worked up? I just want to ask you something.’
‘I’ve seen lots of people like you,’ she said. ‘I’m not worked up. If you’ve got something to say, spit it out; if you’ve got gas, let it out.’
‘Not here,’ I said. ‘Let’s go somewhere where there aren’t so many people.’
Once again she got the wrong idea. Her eyes blazed as she raised the dripping mop over her head and was about to hit me in the face. ‘Somewhere where there aren’t so many people? It’ll still belong to the Communist Party, even if there’s nobody there. You think I’m afraid you’ll try to kill me?’